Legion
by subduralmongoose
Summary: Aelara Dawnstrider, or more commonly known as Bernadotte, faces new challenges in leading a small army in the face of the invasion forces of the Burning Legion. She must conquer her own fears and worries as she travels along side Rexxar in the Broken Isles.
1. Chapter 1

++Hello! It has been a long time since I've written stories like this so please bare with me! ++

"Survive."

The words came to Bernadottes mind as if they were engraved into her memories. In order to win the trust of the mighty Rexxar, orcish hero of the Horde, she had to survive a night in the wilds of Highmountain. The bitter cold air stung her nose as if bees flew up into her nostrils. Each breath came more pained and complicated than the last. The thin blood elf wrapped her cloak around her body as she began to make a fire for the night. Her white wolf, named Baby, wrapped herself around Bernadotte for warmth. Though the wolf was from the frozen wastes of Frostwolf plains, she still wasn't used to another planet's weather. Bernadotte grabbed her pouch full of meat she had butchered from goats nearby and put a slab of meat on a pointed stick. She shoved the stick into the rocks that surrounded the fire and hoped the meat would cook fast enough to where she can eat it and not get sick, again.

"Survive."

Why am I doing this?, the blood elf thought to herself. She wrapped the cloak around herself even tighter and sighed. I survived Icecrowns harsh and cold winters but I can't even survive this, she thought to herself angrily. Bernadotte grabbed a pebble and angrily tossed it. Her pet started to get worried about her master again, she nudged her master's shoulder and whined. Bernadotte had gotten orders from the hunter exclusive order, called the Unseen Path, to recruit Rexxar. He was a valuable asset to the Unseen Path and to her army. Bernadotte was the commander of the Unseen Path, she carried the legendary bow that her ancestors forged from the sacred trees that surrounded the Sunwell. She had closed her eyes for a moment before hearing her wolf growl. Her wolf gave her a hard nudge to wake her up, Bernadottes eyes snapped open as she forced her shivering body to stand up. In the distance, she could see the faint outline of a felguard, a large demon that wielded axes was charging straight towards her direction. The felhounds that accompanied the demon had caught on to the blood elf's scent. Bernadotte grabbed her bow and nocked an arrow, getting ready for the battle that would probably ensue if she would stand her ground. Bernadotte let out a quiet "SHHHT!" to her pet, letting her know that they were going to hide in the bushes nearby. Bernadotte knew she was outmatched and didn't want to risk it. But her pet was extremely over protective. Baby stood her ground, her stance prevented Bernadotte from moving the wolf. It was useless, it was like trying to move a brick wall. She heard the demon stop and sneer at her, letting out a loud and terrifying guffaw as its amber eyes glared at her. Bernadotte felt herself shake even more as she tried to keep the nocked arrow in place. Her fingers trembled like leaves in the wind as she tried to get a grip on the arrow.

"Mere arrows won't do much against me, little elf!" the demon yelled, it charged towards Bernadotte, its felhounds not too far behind.

Bernadotte tried to get her cold body to move, but her legs wouldn't move. They just shook like an earthquake. Bernadotte hadn't felt this kind of fear since the undead scourge invaded her home city and killed off half of the High Elf population. She managed to move when her wolf rammed herself into Bernadottes side. Bernadotte managed to miss the axe that descended at where she recently stood. She rolled as the demon began to stomp on the ground, attempting to squish her. Its boot was about the size of her body, Bernadotte scrambled to her feet and let out a arcane shot. It hit the demon in the chest, but it didn't stop it nor did it slow it down. The demon looked down at its chest and let out a deep chuckle. It grabbed the arrow and yanked it out of its broad, red chest. Green blood oozed out of the wound, it glowed bright as stars in the night as it fell from its chest and trickled on the ground. Bernadotte looked on in disbelief, the bow barely scratched it. The wound that she made was just a little pin prick. The demon charged again, this time it hit Bernadotte. The demon strong armed her and sent her flying into a tree. Bernadotte felt something snap in her body, it was her arm that was now broken. She let out a loud yelp as she was sent flying. The impact forced air out from her lungs as the demon grabbed her again. The felguard grabbed Bernadotte by the head and lifted her a good 8 feet from the ground. Her pet tried to help her as Baby charged into the demon's left leg, head first. The demon didn't budge, it laughed again as it swept its leg up and with the wolf with it. It sent the white wolf forward and into a boulder, the wolf let out a yelp.

"B...Baby!" Bernadotte struggled to yell, the felguards large armored hand was wrapped around her neck and abdomen.

The felguards felhounds surrounded Bernadotte and her unconscious pet as she struggled. Her vision started to get blurry from the tears that started to flood her vision. The felguards strength threatened to snap both her neck and back in two, she grabbed a dagger from her back and began to vigorously stab at the felguards fingers. The blood splattered on her face, the green ooze burned as it touched her pale skin. Her nose cringed as the smell of sulfur invaded her senses. Bernadotte felt herself grow weak. Her vision started to grow dark and her breaths more shallow, she clawed at the felguards hand in another desperate attempt to get it to let go. The demon sneered wickedly at the squirming blood elf in its hand. It could easily crush the dying blood elf's delicate features, but it enjoyed watching Bernadotte slowly suffocate. The felguard raised its axe and chuckled grimly. Bernadotte closed her eyes, awaiting her fate.

"Guess this is how it ends…" She thought to herself, a cold breeze brushed across her bruised pale face, "I'll see you soon, mother…"

She felt the felguard jolt as it let out a gurgle. Something had slit its throat. The demon let go of Bernadotte, sending her to the snow speckled ground with a thud. Her vision began to wane, her eyes fluttered as she laid motionless on the ground. She heard the familiar sound of blades clashing; the sound of gurgling and grunting as if someone was trying to keep fighting on. Her eyes finally gave out to exhaustion, it no longer felt cold to her.

Bernadotte awoke around a fire pit. The warm glow of the fire made her wounds feel as if they were already healed. It was like a priest's glowing healing light to her. She felt a warm pelt of fur around her, she lifted it up; her arm not as cooperative as it should've been. Her left arm was in a makeshift sling, her ribcage bruised and bandaged up, and one of her legs was in a makeshift splint.

"Don't move just yet.", a very deep and rugged voice whispered quietly at her, a large orange-brown hand slowly pushed her back down, "You took quite the beating, I'm surprised you're still alive!"

Bernadotte tried to fight Rexxar's rather large hand, but finally listened to his hand pushing down on her; she let her body drop back down in the sleeping furs. She sighed in disappointment and pulled the furs close to her, wrapping herself around them. Rexxar tore a piece of meat off of the meat hooks he had set up days earlier. Impaling several pieces of meats on spikes, he stabbed the sticks into the dirt and covered the bases with rocks so that they could stand up. A little later into the night, Rexxar picked up the sleeping blood elf and flung her over the saddle of his wolf. Rexxar was surprised that the blood elf didn't stir as he flung her gently over the saddle. He made sure the saddle was tight on his mount before setting off on their journey back to Trueshot Lounge, which was at least a 2 day journey up the mountains. They journeyed up to Cliffs Edge, scaling large and unstable cliffs before coming to rest in a forested area near the path. Rexxar gently put Bernadotte back on the ground as he setted camp. Mishha, his loyal bear companion, nudged Rexxar, hoping that her cute face could get some food. Rexxar swatted Mishhas nose gently.

"Save some meat for the skinny elf, girl." Rexxar cooed, giving Misshas snout a gentle scritch.

Missha growl was filled with annoyance, the bear hadn't eaten since her and her master fended off that felguard a couple of days ago. She flopped down in a makeshift nest that she made and dosed off. Bernadotte awakened again, she noticed her wolf was next to her side. Baby cuddled next to her master, wedging herself in between Bernadottes arm and body. Bernadotte ran her fingers through her wolf's pelt and patted her head. Rexxar sat down next to her, watching the meat he had set up around the fire. Bernadotte avoided eye contact with Rexxar, feeling that she had lost his trust and confidence.

"No need to worry, elf", Rexxar said, stretching his arms, "You couldn't of guessed more than anyone that the Legion would find you out here."

Bernadotte felt Rexxars hand fall gently on her shoulder. She winced lightly at the soreness that radiated through her body. She brushed off his hand off of her shoulder and pouted. Bernadotte was never one for comfort or pity. The orc gave her a rather confused look before shoving a piece of jerky in her face. Bernadotte was drawn back a bit, returning Rexxars confused look with an annoyed look.

"You need to eat…", Rexxar growled, "Eat it or I'll make you eat it."

Bernadotte snatched the piece of jerky from his hand and annoyingly bit into the jerky. She chewed on it slowly and made an irritated grunt. Rexxar let out a quiet chuckle, Bernadotte gave him another irritated look.

"What?", Bernadotte growled, taking another bite of the jerky.

Rexxar grabbed a stick that was near the fire and bit into the meat that was impaled on the tip of it, "You're much more different than other blood elf women I've met.", he said, he grabbed another piece of meat and gave it to Missha.

"Is that supposed to be a praise or an insult?", Bernadotte jested.

Rexxar let out a loud guffaw and slapped Bernadotte in the back playfully, Bernadotte felt her bones sing. She lurched forward, she guessed that Rexxar has never befriended a blood elf before.

"How long do you think we'll be out here for?", Bernadotte asked, curling the sleeping furs around her body.

"Maybe one day's journey.", Rexxar explained as he got up and grabbed his sleeping furs that were rolled up in a roll, he laid them out and patted them with his hand, "Maybe two day's, depending on the weather."

"Is the weather that bad here?", she asked.

Rexxar shrugged.

"It honestly depends.", he said, laying back on a makeshift pillow, made of a soft rabbit pelt, "Just like you, I've only recently been out here."

"Is that so, I thought the mighty Rexxar journeyed across Azeroth and beyond?", Bernadotte joked, giving Rexxar a teasing look.

Rexxar snorted irritatedly and pulled his helm down to his eyes.

"Sleep elf, we have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow.", he growled.


	2. Chapter 2

The smell of sulfur and brimstone burned Bernadottes nose, her face wrinkled from cringing. Her wolf would snort and huff every now and then. They were getting close to the Fel camp, the smell was overwhelming for Bernadotte, but she felt as if she should of been used to it now. She partook in the corruption her prince had forced her people into. Bernadotte closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the day she siphoned fel energy from a demon that she had killed. Her and her brother were both in the early stages of magic withdrawal, the pains they endured grew too much. Bernadotte remembered feeling sick as she siphoned the green energy from the demon, she remembers how the skin on the demon darkened and dulled. The relief she and her brother had felt was euphoric, but it came at a price. A price of constant magic addiction. Bernadotte felt a knot in her throat; she felt nauseated. She swore to never partake in siphoning mana from anything ever again after what had happened to her family and the High Elfs. A large but gentle thud on her shoulder brought Bernadotte back to reality. Rexxar stood next to her, giving her an annoyed look through his wolfskin helm.

"I don't think this is the right time to be reminiscing about the past, little elf.", the orc said, he moved his hand on her shoulder and make her shake back and forth, "We need to be ready to move soon."

Bernadotte adjusted her gauntlets and tightened the wrist straps. She let out an annoyed but depressed huff. Bernadotte wasn't used to company, especially being to being followed around. Rexxar began following her around a couple of days after their encounter, he called himself her "bodyguard". Bernadotte grew irritated with him, but Emmarel, who was Bernadottes second in command, thought it was a good idea for him to be her bodyguard; since Bernadotte always got into trouble. Bernadotte gave Rexxar a glare before turning around.

"Wouldn't do us much good if they spotted us, huh?", Bernadotte said sarcastically, she scratched Baby's back and smirked, "Don't want to end up like Stormwinds king."

Val'Sharah was a beautiful, yet a dangerous place. The forests stretched for miles, and the trees stretched out to the sky. A light blue-purple haze lightly shaded the sky and the trees. Rexxar felt right at home, he chopped down some trees and made a small fire. The smell of sulfur still haunted Bernadottes nose, it felt like it would stick with her for years. The memories began to pour in again, from fighting to protect her prince in Outlands to running away from her family to find her own path. She knew her brothers were probably out looking for her, or probably gave up. The smell of jerky brought her back again, Rexxar had thrown some on the fire. Bernadotte shot him another glare.

"Don't you think that would attract attention?", she growled, pointing to the fire.

Rexxar returned her glare with a sarcastic smirk, "Can't fight demons on a empty stomach.", he jested, shoving a handful of jerky in his mouth.

Bernadotte's face twisted with annoyance and disgust. She should have known that he wasn't one for manners either. She rolled her eyes and huffed. She looked at her pet who slept next to her and ran her fingers through her fur. Silence filled the camp as they had some jerky and water. Bernadotte looked down at the ground as she ate. These thoughts just won't leave me, she thought to herself. She thought she'd never smell sulfur ever again, but she was wrong. With the Burning Legion invading Azeroth, she grew more concerned for her sanity than her own health. Every time she closed her eyes to sleep, her mind would be flooded with nightmares. Gruesome nightmares, the one's she didn't want to see. Bernadotte felt a pebble hit her forehead. She snapped her eyes open to see Rexxar giving her a concerned, but annoyed look.

"You've been spacing out ever since we got close to this camp,", he growled, "Talk to me, commander."

Bernadotte squinted her eyes and raised an eyebrow, "Talk to you about what?", she questioned angrily, her tone of voice made Rexxar flinch.

"You have that look in your eye...", he said, "The look of despair and of pain."

Bernadotte sighed sorrowfully, she's never been cornered like this. She never talked about her emotions, not even to her brothers. Bernadotte began to remove her armor slowly. She removed her shoulder guards first and worked her way down to her wrist gauntlets, she stopped when Rexxar let out a angry "What are you doing?!"

"I'm getting ready to sleep," she answered back as she took off her chestplate and belt, revealing a loose shirt underneath, "Do you have a problem?"

"Yes, in fact I do!", he shouted, "What if the enemy ambushes us?"

Bernadotte rolled her eyes out of irritation as she continued to toss her armor off. She grabbed her sleeping furs and spread them out on the ground; she flopped down on them angrily and covered herself with them, making herself look like a cocoon. Rexxar huffed and rolled his eyes, feeding Misha and Baby a large piece of jerky. He patted them both on the heads before turning in for the night. He smothered the fire out and prepared his sleeping furs. They both needed sleep, for tomorrow, they had a scouting mission to complete on the nearby fel camp.

The night passed as quickly as it came, but to Bernadotte it seemed it was too long. Her nightmares returned, she dreamed that she kept dying in brutal ways. The way the Horde's late Warchief and the Alliance's king died haunted her; she didn't want to die painfully from being poisoned or being disintegrated. She twisted and turned in her sleep; yelped and called out. Rexxar woke up to the sounds of the blood elf commander crying in her sleep. She was rather loud.

The morning sun rose over the green and purple peaks, shining through the trees. Rexxar tried to wake Bernadotte, but to no avail. She was a very hard sleeper; even if the world around her exploded, she wouldn't wake up. Rexxar let out an annoyed grunt before wondering off into the nearby woods for some more firewood. Bernadotte laid still, as if she were dead. The smell of sulfur lingered around the camp. Bernadotte managed to wake herself as she smelt the lingering sulfur. She hated it.

"Why did they have to send me out here?", she asked herself, lifting herself off her sleeping furs.

Bernadotte stretched and let out a strained noise as she rolled her shoulders. For being 453, she still felt pretty limber. Rexxar covered his face as he approached the game. She was still in her underwear and a flimsy short white shirt that covered her chest. He walked into a tree and tripped over a rock as he covered his face. He grabbed a piece of the commander's armor and tossed it to her casually. Bernadotte cocked an eyebrow and gave him a confused look.

"Please, put your armor on..", Rexxar pleaded, still covering his face.

"Why?", Bernadotte snapped back, "It's actually quite breezy."

"You mean quite embarrassing.", Rexxar retorted, tossing his commander another piece of chest armor.

Bernadotte rolled her eyes, she never knew the Champion of the Horde was a shy fellow around women. She put her boots on before sitting back down on her sleeping furs and glared at her bodyguard.

"What's the report?", she questioned as she put on her leggings for her leg armor.

"The what?", Rexxar questioned back, peaking through his fingers.

Bernadotte rolled her eyes again, she tightened the strings around the waist of the leggings. She grabbed her brown, wood like leg plates and strapped them around her legs; one by one.

"You went out to scout, did you not?", she said, annoyed.

"Oh!", Rexxar acknowledged, he pulled out a piece of map from his back pouch and unwrinkled it, smoothing the paper out on a tree, "The demons haven't moved since this morning, but it seems as if they've brought in more prisoners."

"More than usual?", Bernadotte questioned.

Rexxar nodded his head, "There seems to be more blood elf prisoners.", he explained, "Seems as if they got near a Reliquary site."

Bernadotte shook her head and held the bridge of her nose, she continued to put her on her armor. Rexxar and Bernadotte advanced for the Fel camp after sitting around for an hour, eating breakfast. Bernadotte and Rexxar stood at the edge of a cliff looking down the Fel camp. The screams and cries of the prisoners filled the quiet morning air, it chilled Bernadotte to her very bones. The demons were torturing their prisoners mercilessly. There were no qualms as demon torturers tossed bodies into a green fel fire. The soul engine hummed loudly and lit up like a tree on Winter's Veil. The smell of charred, burned bodies filled Bernadottes and Rexxars nose. Bernadotte felt like vomiting, to her, it felt like the scourge had invaded her home again. Rexxar ran his large fingers through his pet's fur and gave Bernadotte a concerned face. He had encountered the Burning Legion and their cruel methods before, but nothing like this.

"How should we go about this, Commander?", he asked wearily.

Bernadotte put her right hand to her face, covering half of her face to stop the smell of bodies and sulfur going into her nose. The lump in her throat grew bigger, it felt hard to swallow now. The fear slowly built up inside of her, this fear she hadn't felt since 18 years ago. They continued to slowly advance towards the camp, just small baby steps. They didn't want to risk detection.

"We'll set off a distraction,", Bernadotte explained quietly, "and then we help those prisoners."

"And how do we go about doing that?", Rexxar asked, his hands gripped his two axes.

Bernadotte shrugged, "We'll find a way, we always do.", she said as she slowly moved again, towards a large shrub.


End file.
